Article
Ask five MSPs what managed IT costs and you will get five versions of “it depends,” a discovery call, and a proposal three weeks later. The evasion is strategic: vague pricing lets a provider quote whatever the room will bear.
Here is the straight version.
The honest number
For a 75–500-person, multi-site company with real security requirements, competent managed IT in the United States generally runs $100 to $250 per user per month nationally — and lands in the upper half of that range in high-cost metros like New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego. Ironguard’s pricing starts at $150 per user per month, with most multi-site engagements landing between $150 and $200 once drivers are scoped — and we publish it because a buyer who cannot get a straight answer about price should wonder what other answers will be crooked.
What a real per-user rate covers
At that level, the monthly rate should include employee support with actual escalation paths, a security baseline (identity, MFA, endpoint protection, email security), Microsoft 365 administration and governance, device standards and lifecycle management, vendor and licensing management with a renewal calendar, and reporting a CFO can read.
What gets scoped separately — at every honest provider
Dedicated onsite staffing, hardware purchases, travel to field sites, and major projects like buildouts, migrations, and relocations. A provider who claims these are “included” has priced them in somewhere; you are paying either way, just without visibility.
How lowball quotes actually work
A $75-per-user quote is not a bargain. It is a coverage decision you have not been told about: offshore-only support, no security baseline beyond antivirus, “best effort” response, and a change-order machine that bills every real task as a project. The cheapest per-user price is rarely the cheapest year — the same math as the cheapest laptop.
Three questions that expose the real price
What exactly is in the monthly rate, in writing? What are your three most common out-of-scope charges, and what did they cost your clients last year? And: what happens to the rate at renewal? Any provider who answers all three plainly is worth talking to — whatever they charge.
— IAN BERKOWITZ, FOUNDER & CEO, IRONGUARD IT